In April the International Monetary Fund estimated that the total fiscal effort worldwide in all forms already came to $8 trillion. In May it revised that to $9 trillion and in October to a staggering $12 trillion. By January 2021 the total had reached $14 trillion.2 That was vastly larger than the stimulus following the 2008 banking crisis. The scale of this spending and tax relief in 2020 was crucial in mitigating the social disaster that might otherwise have resulted from the shutdowns.
